PMP Exam Advice, Information and Question Types

First of all, the exam is tricky. You won’t get all the questions right. In fact, I teach that you need to

recalibrate your thinking and feel like 80% is equal to 100%. Your target score for end of chapter tests is

at least 75%, maybe even 80% after a course reviews. For full 200-question practice tests, a score of

75% or above is good enough to take and pass the real test. Of course, higher is better, but don’t get

discouraged when you score a 55% or even lower on a full practice test. It happens.

The best advice to get ready for the PMP exam, in addition to reading the PMBOK and a PMP exam prep

book of choice, is taking as many practice questions as you can. Take process tests, take knowledge area

tests, practice math-based tests, and take full practice tests. Most say at least 1000 questions work.

The test is designed for an experienced project manager who has lived and worked the situations the

test will describe. If you have not worked these large, high cost, multi-cultural, complex projects that are

often described, you can still pass the exam. You just have to imagine you have worked them and are

the skilled knowledgeable project manager the test is written for.

Develop a test strategy. Check out the testing site in advance. Talk to the testing center, find out about

their procedures for check-in, taking breaks, earplugs, calculators, scratch paper and anything else you

want to know. The test is hard; have no illusions, it will challenge you. Plan to take breaks, either

physical breaks where you leave the room or just mental breaks to re-group, refresh and get re-focused.

Consider breaking the test into 8 tests of 25 questions each, with a short cleansing breath after each

section and a mental pledge to do even better on the next section. The last section may need that extra

focus, to make sure you don’t slip into the “just get it done” syndrome.

Many have asked about guessing on the exam. Trust me, you will guess at many questions. You have to

trust your guesses and generally never change your answers unless you find proof that the answer is

wrong by reading another question after or having some great revelation. What if you see a question

later in the exam that gives you that ahha moment for a previous question? How do you go back and

find that question? On the exam, you have the opportunity to mark questions. I suggest that you mark

the ones you guess at but more important, you need to make a note on your scratch paper with the

question number and a short note about the topic of the question. Practice doing this when taking your

practice tests. This will help understand what additional time it takes to do this necessary step.

Another topic is the brain or memory dump. The brain dump can’t be done outside of the 4-hour test. If

you create a memory or brain dump you’ll need to create it during your test. It is usually dome right at

the beginning when you still have all those formulas and miscellaneous facts in your head. Some people

also create a copy of the framework to help visualize the process steps and order or steps. It is your

choice, if and when you do a brain dump. About 50% of testers do one and some of those use them.

Some just say it gave them comfort knowing those facts or formulas were there.

So, what are the questions like? There will be questions covering the formulas, most say about 15 to 20.

There will also be about 15 questions on earned value, some requiring math, others just comprehending

the math. There will be some very short and simple questions based on the many terms, concepts and

facts you know about project management. There will be questions on the sequence of project events,

requiring you to know where you are in the processes and what comes next. There will also be questions

about the inputs, tools and techniques, and outputs. These questions may simply ask which of the

following is an input, outputs or tools and techniques of a particular process step. Check out my tips on

knowing the ITTOs on my website.

There will be situational questions where you need to rely on your project management experience.

Some questions will appear to have more than two right answers. Some may say all four answers could

be right. For these questions you need to eliminate the wrong answers based on the situation or where

you are in the project. Some questions will have extraneous data. The real question may be quite

simple. Read the actual question first and then go back and read the extra material; it will be easier to

sort out the misinformation. PMI has added the capability on the exam to highlight or strikethrough text

in the questions if you get one that is extremely long.

You will also see questions with made up terms. Obviously if you recognize a made-up term, you can

eliminate that answer. Also, look for what they are asking specifically. If they are asking in which of the

following process groups does this process take place, then the answer has to be a process group, not a

process step or tool and technique. Some questions have key terms that require understanding in order

to answer the question. You need to know terms like decomposition, bid analysis, or plurality to

understand and answer the question.

There may be questions on a well-known topic asking a question using a new approach. The topic might

be about a functional organization and the question may ask if information dissemination is effective

when which of the following occurs? Some questions may have longer answers with multiple parts. For

these questions just try to eliminate one or more sections of the parts of the answers. This will get you

closer to the only one with both or all three components as the answer. And last but not least, there will

be a few excessively wordy questions. Don’t panic, read them twice if necessary. You have about 70

seconds per question. Most you’ll answer in under 40 seconds. If you are worried about how much

time you have on the exam, establish a question number correlating to each hour of the test or maybe

just the half-way point. For example, you should be at or past question 135 at 2 hours into the exam. If

you have answered less than 100 questions at the half-way point you may be in danger of not finishing

in 4 hours.

When you finish the test, you can go back and review marked answers or even unmarked answers. You’ll

have the full 4 hours before the test stops. When you finally press that button that says you are done,

you’ll be asked to complete a survey. The test is being graded while you answer the survey. When you

get done, you’ll get a note on the screen that you passed or you failed. Later you will get access to a

detailed report showing how you did in each of the five process groups. The four qualifiers are needs

improvement, below target, target and above target. Details on how you did in all the subject areas as

outlined in the role delineation study document published in June 2015, will also be shown and may be

helpful for study if you did not pass the exam. You will not get a number grade.